Sunday, July 6, 2014

Bloodhunt: the Board Game

Maybe its a summer thing, or maybe I've invested too many hours programming the combat animations, but I've decided to change the direction of Bloodhunt development. Instead of a series of disconnected mini-games, I've reinterpreted Bloodhunt as an entirely new board game version of Vampire: the Masquerade Bloodlines. This "board game thing" doesn't mean that Bloodhunt is no longer a video game. It only means that I've re-designed the game from the ground up as a simple set of rules which integrate all possible interactions, just as a game board ruleset. No more mini-games, no more wasted time on animations. First things first.

These are the core gameplay mechanics or, as some may say, the verbs that the player can use to interact with the game world.

Move. The world map is formed by different city maps (Santa Monica, Downtown, etc). Each city map contains different locations which in turn are formed by square tiles of different sizes. The player character can travel in the city map betwen two different locations (not necessarily adjacent) by spending 1 time unit (let's say one hour). The player can also move inside a location map to an adjacent tile by spending 1/10 time unit (let's say 5 minutes). After 10 hours there's a new day and you better be in your haven, since daylight causes 3 or 5 dice of aggravated damage (depending if you're in an exterior or interior location). So you better travel cautiosly, trying to end up the night near your haven.

Sleep. You can spend the 10 time units (hours) of the day sleeping in your bed or coffin. Sleeping through the day automatically heals 1 aggravated wound in the process (at a cost of 1 blood point). This is another good reason to travel back to your haven every night.

Dialog. This action allows you to speak with a character in your same tile. The dialog system allows you to perform the following sub-actions: interrogate, intimidate, lie, persuade, seduce.

Investigate. This action allows you to see, take and use all items inside a location tile.

Feed. Your character can bite another character in order to drink blood. If the victim has not been previously seduced, you have to throw a resisted roll of Strength + Brawl.

Atack. You character can attack enemies in a resisted dice roll. Mortals have 1 HP, ghouls 2 HP, vampires 3 to 8 HP and werewolves 10+ HP. Each combat turn results in 1 damage point to one of the characters. In a single turn, you can knock down a mortal.

As a bonus, here's some pixels showing the 7 male characters of the Camarilla clans, and a hallway location.